Resourcing difficulties will persist if employers continue to overlook diversity when recruiting

Only 50% of organisations have a formal diversity strategy to help guide recruitment practice, according to the latest Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). This research suggests that many organisations are failing to tap into the relatively underused sources of potential labour to help overcome the persistent recruitment and retention difficulties that they face today.

The CIPDís Annual Talent Management, Recruitment and Retention Conference 2007 will offer practical advice on how organisations can develop a successful approach to recruiting a diverse workforce.

On Wednesday 20 June, Donna Miller, European HR Director, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Alan Wainwright, Director of Human Resources, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service will draw on their own experiences and talk about the practical challenges organisations face and how to overcome them when recruiting, in order to appeal to a broader range of candidates.

Dianah Worman, CIPD Diversity Adviser, says: ìThe survey finds that only half of responding organisations have an explicit diversity strategy, with three quarters lacking a policy for recruiting ex-offenders.

ìPractising diversity in recruitment is fundamental in order to gain access to the best people from the widest labour pool possible.

ìOrganisations that fail to take a proactive approach to diversity will miss out on business benefits such as improved creativity, innovation and customer service that arise from a more wholehearted approach to diversity.î

Donna Miller, European HR Director, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, adds: ìWe carry out our business where our customers live and work ñ in their neighbourhoods. This is why we feel so strongly about mirroring the communities we serve. Enterprise reaches out to people of all backgrounds and our commitment to being an inclusive company extends to every employee, customer, service provider and business partner. We see it that there is way too much to miss out on if we donít.î